Well this project has dragged on; been short handled at the office and busy, but some progress got made this weekend just not how I had envisioned it.... Would up adding the new floor covering to the shop, it cost me a day but, now when I drop that one and only-one screw of type - x at 11pm at night I can find it in 2 minutes not 2 hours. (Paid dividends already)
Project #1 was finding a spot to mount the quarq collector that didn't compromise: Aero, nose weight, storage or device security (expensive to eject) Finally settle on under the seat at shoulder height.
Weight was nominal after gettting a supply of supper thin washer to to spread the load out a bit on the seat.
If it pick up signal good; I'll get a hair shorter bolt and use a self locking nut, maybe a slightly bigger diameter washer.
Interesting while doing this I decided to weight my 5 different carbon seat. Interestingly I found a 80g discrepancy between the 5 seats. So I rotated them around putting the lightest on on my bike and the heaviest one on pluckyblond's (event out the watts/kg betteR)..... Seriously though I also simplied the water bottle cage attachments replacing washer with Gromets and between the seat swaps, cages and removal of the kick stand mounts we dropped 225 grams (½ lb) off both bikes that actually a size-able savings. Between that and replace the prototype double bottle holders with the carbon boxes I estimate that the bikes will be about 775 gram (1.5 lbs) lighter this season just from those changes. Give the addition of the Flo 90s (due here any day) that should make us weight neutral.
Next up Project #2 was getting the High end tail light mounted. This turn out to be analysis paralysis. I think I have about 30 hours of thought and eyeballing into figuring out how to do the light and battery in conjunction with the tail-box. One does not cut into carbon without a lot of thought.
In the end the trick was to go under the tail-box not on it. Giving a solution for even when the tail-box was removed. Had to build up the head rest tube a bit to get the Cateye H32- 24mm mount to fit (I have H34's in route which I think will work better without the rubber padding and will be more secure).
Then mount the light with a fixed rotation on it's mounting arm.
Photos make the clearance seem a little deceiving; There's actually a ton of space between the wheel and the light.
Final mount is: out of the way of the water bottle; out of the wind, secure, and plenty visible from behind, and the new 3400 mAH (2cell) battery fits between the head rest bars. Battery should be good for just over 9.2 hours in my preferred EMS running mode. Battery is really too expensive; but it's a ¼ pound lighter , half the size, and had a charge gauge that very handy. With that battery there a several power level and flash modes that would run the tail-light for over 24 hours. So I guess it was worth it. I was impressed enough to get a second set for the head light; but those runtimes will be much poorer as the Gemini isn't that battery efficient. But this give the option for less weight on the boom and to carry a swap out battery in the moose bag weight isn't on the boom.
Now that is done I'm still working on where to mount the fly6 I would love to get it in the same spot as the tail light but on the other side. So far that is eluded me, other option is the back of the tail box but I really don't like it there. Probably another 30 hours of analysis paralysis on that one I suppose. (This is putting a cramp in my training time).
